5 actors who played Lord Krishna onscreen

Akshay Kumar played Lord Krishna in Oh My God. (YouTube)

As we celebrate Janmashtami today, we take a look at the best portrayals of Lord Krishna on the big screen.

Akshay Kumar: Actor Akshay Kumar played Lord Krishna in the film OMG – Oh My God! (2012). The film revolved around an atheist Kanji Mehta, who decides to take God to court after he incurs damages in his antique shop. It was challenging for Akshay to portray Lord Krishna on screen. “The toughest part is living up to the nation’s expectations and perceptions. But really all I had to do was release myself from all negative and impure thoughts and actions, and just be the very being of what I have been praying to for all my years,” he was quoted as saying earlier.

NT Rama Rao: Telugu actor NT Rama Rao is remembered for playing Lord Krishna in 17 films, which is more than any other Indian actor has ever done. Some of these films include Sri Krishnarjuna Yudham (1962), the Tamil film Karnan (1964) and Daana Veera Soora Karna (1977).

NTR played Lord Krishna more times than any actor.

Pawan Kalyan: Telugu actor Pawan Kalyan played the role of Lord Krishna in the Telugu version of OMG – Oh My God!, which was called Gopala Gopala. There were reports of the actor hesitating before taking on the project and took 10 days to finally agree to take up the project. His screen time in the film is 25 minutes.

Prithviraj: There were reports last year that Malayalam actor Prithviraj will play the role of Lord Krishna in film Syamanthakam, which will be directed by Malayalam filmmaker Hariharan. The film will be made in Malayalam, Telugu, Tamil and Hindi. The story is based on a sub story of the Mahabharat. “Although Krishna has been featured before in a few Indian films, this would be the first time that he is being portrayed as a hero. Krishna will be seen as a warrior, lover and philosopher,” the director was quoted as saying.